“We don’t even know their life expectancy now. “We live in constant fear that they will relapse or need a kidney transplant, or of the impact on their brains,” Micouleau said. Now they are frail, on medication and facing lifelong health concerns. Both were on kidney dialysis and fighting for their lives. Then his 10-year-old brother, Preston, was rushed to hospital. First her five-year-old son Curtis fell ill and was treated in intensive care, with uncertainty over whether he would survive as complications hit his kidneys and brain. Photograph: François Lo Presti/AFP/GettyĪurélie Micouleau, who lives near Montpellier in the south, said her sons’ lives were changed for ever after they shared a Buitoni Fraîch’Up pizza at the end of February. In April, the state ordered Nestlé France to suspend production. The Buitoni factory in Caudry, northern France. We’ve lost everything, we’ve got nothing left to lose.” “This is a fight for the truth and for Nestlé to recognise its responsibility. After three weeks in intensive care, including emergency heart surgery, Kelig died on 10 March. “He nibbled tiny pieces beside us, not even a whole slice,” Soavi said. Kelig had already eaten his dinner but tasted some pizza from his parents’ plates. Théo Soavi was in the military, and his wife, Ludivine, cared full-time for their son, Kelig, aged two-and-a-half. One young couple in Brittany, who sat down to a dinner of Buitoni Fraîch’Up pizza in February, said their lives had been destroyed. “The families I represent are appalled, they feel abandoned by the justice system.” Debuisson said the state’s criminal investigation was not progressing fast enough. The families now want changes to the law to create tougher controls on food production and higher penalties for contamination. He added that Nestlé had already faced an E coli contamination of cookie dough in the US in 2009 and should have been aware of risks. But Debuisson said that for weeks after the first cases of children falling ill in January, the pizzas continued to be eaten. State agencies informed Nestlé France on 17 March of a possible link and the next day the company recalled almost 1m Fraîch’Up pizzas, stopped deliveries and suspended production. “Hundreds of thousands of French people could have found themselves in this situation.”ĭebuisson said he wanted answers from the state and Nestlé France on factory cleaning processes and the delay in connecting the E coli outbreak to the pizzas. “Everyone can identify with this, everyone eats pizza,” he said. Debuisson said many of the surviving children were treated in intensive care and some suffered permanent organ damage. When E coli bacteria infects humans, particularly children, it can cause complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome, a form of kidney failure. Pierre Debuisson, a lawyer for the families, called the deaths and illness “an unprecedented human tragedy”. The company has said it will cooperate with authorities and “put in place the necessary measures” so nothing like this happens again. The legal investigation led by a judge will have the final word, but could take years. Nestlé France announced last month it had tested more than 2,000 samples from its factory and ingredients, and that an E coli contamination of the flour seemed “the most probable” explanation, adding that it found no trace of the bacteria on production lines. The suspension order highlighted “a deterioration of food hygiene controls” and said inspections had shown the presence of “rodents” and insufficient measures to prevent pests from contaminating a food production site. In April, the state ordered Nestlé France to suspend production at its Buitoni factory in Caudry, northern France, where the Fraîch’Up pizza range was made.
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